Week 1: The question and answers were all informative. The three question and answers that sparked a new thought process for me were, working with the speech-language pathologist in the classroom, including special education students in Four-Blocks instruction, and providing phonics instruction to students with cognitive impairments. Speech-language pathologists (SLP) used to pullout students or groups for therapy. It makes sense for the SLP to become part of the reading and writing block. Allowing SLP’s to provide support in the classroom provides students with meaningful instruction that is much more individualized. Their expertise will also help the teacher to better understand their student’s needs as they collaborate together. Special education students included in Four-Blocks instruction may involve adapting materials and time frames, but it takes away the isolation of students so often noticed in the classroom. Using Four-Blocks as a framework for literacy instruction will help students to make gains in a more meaningful and motivating context. I like the way each block is adapted to meet the student’s needs. The most interesting Q & A for me was the overdue reality that students with cognitive impairments do need phonics instruction and can acquire phonological awareness. I have always wondered why we were short-changing our students. You can only go so far with sight word recognition. It is refreshing to know we should be teaching students with cognitive impairments the skills necessary to read unfamiliar words. Once I read about these three areas, it was clear to me that we are making significant and beneficial changes in the classroom for special education students.
Week 2: The authors wrote this book to increase teacher awareness of assistive technology that is available to help students. They wanted to empower teachers with tools, strategies and resources that provide different research-based approaches to help teach all children how to read and write while supporting the different ways children learn. The authors also wanted to support the efforts of the general education teacher and the children they teach in inclusion. There is a strong focus on providing exceptional education students with access to the general reading curriculum.
Week 3:
AT strategies
1. Bigmack
2. Acrylic eye-gaze frame
3. Step-by-Step communication device with speech output
4. Word prediction program
5. Paper with raised lines
6. Triangular pencil grip
7. Red/green button switch
8. Multi-media software program, electronic books
9. Talking word processor
10. Photo album with felt pictures
Week 4:
One benefit of the Four-Blocks Day in a Special Education Classroom is the strengthening of the home-school connection. Keeping parents informed and involved in their child's education helps promote student success. The use of the home-school journal and sending books home for students to read provides opportunities for interaction between the student and the parent. Writing messages and sending remnants to school for the student to share with the class helps to develop relationships and share personal experiences. The teacher sending home descriptions of the upcoming units keeps parents aware of what their child is working on in class. Keeping open communication is an important factor when building a rapport with parents.
One challenge of the Four-Blocks Day in a Special Education Classroom is finding the time to prepare and adapt materials, program devices, plan units and lessons, and collaborate with therapists and other staff. This sample day requires support from therapists, parents, and outside help in developing and adapting materials for the classroom to successfully implement the Four-Blocks Day. This could be discouraging for the teacher. I have met teachers who will not implement a great accommodation or program because it takes to long to prepare and plan.
Week 5: Mini-lessons provide opportunities for teachers to help students become more independent in reading by teaching them how to choose books of interest, use strategies and technology to help them read and share what they have read with others.
Examples of mini-lessons: Selecting - Providing students with independent book boxes that contain 5 or 6 books to select from which range in levels. Using these books teach the students preview questions they can ask themselves when selecting a book to read. Using the questions, the teacher then removes the inappropriate books and leaves the appropriate books in the book boxes for future selection. Starting out with limited selection and eventually moving to the bookshelf. Reading - Read aloud to and with students, modeling good reading behaviors and interactions, also modeling the use of software and websites to promote the pleasures of reading independently. Sharing - Model how to complete sample reading responses using graphic organizers, modeling the use of key vocabulary to use in the response and posting it for other students to read.
Week 6:
1. http://www.softtouch.com - Set of integrated tools that help to create electronic books for students who have difficulty reading. The electronic books created can be read aloud to the student by the computer. The student can view movie files and capture the student's attention so they can focus on the text. Student recall of the text is improved due to these additional supports. Reaches more types of learners.
2. http://www.ablenetinc.com - Allows students with devices to experience partner reading by synchronizing the reading with the pages..
3. http://www.riverdeep.net/language_arts/edmark_lang_arts/MakeAStory.html - Interactive electronic texts that can be read aloud to the student, use of animated illustrations, and the ability to modify stories.
4. http://www.starfall.com - Interactive texts on multiple levels of interest for students. Read aloud and highlighted text.
5. http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/index.htm - Interactive storybooks.
6. http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/ - Resource providing links to author websites, online comics, e-zines, poetry, and stories in Spanish.
7. http://www.donjohnston.com - Software that can create custom electronic texts which can integrate classroom libraries, read aloud features, dictionary, highlighting tool and a Support Reading Guide that helps students understand story structure.
8. http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org - Digital children's book collection offering subscriptions to individuals and schools.
9. http://www.bookshare.org - Digital adult or older student book collection offering subscriptions to individuals and schools.
10. http://www.bel-tib-lib.org/kids/lists/type.htm - Collections of electronic texts offering animation, text-to-speech, and highlighting allows students to engage with the text independently.
Week 7:
Conferencing is important for students with disabilities because it provides the teacher time to progress monitor students so they can target areas of difficulty, learn who the student is as a reader, and notice the student's strengths. This time also allows for the teacher to teach students the strategies needed to engage in richer dialogue and collect informal assessment data. The benefits include:
1. Choosing the right book for their ability and interest.
2. Learning how to ask and answer questions.
3. Identifying information requested so the student can answer more thoughtfully and completely.
Week 8:
Strategies to use before reading text with students:
1. Taking a picture walk - A pre-reading strategy used to examine the text by looking at pictures to gain an understanding of the story and vocabulary in advance. The teacher shows pictures of the first few pages of the book and introduces vocabulary.
2. Starting a graphic organizer - Students can refer to the visual representation of their background knowledge and add new information as they read or when they are finished. K-W-L is a good example of a graphic organizer that is started with prior knowledge.
3. Building and accessing prior knowledge - In order to comprehend a story it is necessary to have background knowledge pertaining to the text. Many students have not had the experiences and are unable to make connections or have difficulty recalling words that go with the experience. One way to build and access prior knowledge is to select core concepts and have students brainstorm what they know. This helps students recall what they know about the topic. Watching a video or looking at pictures are ways to develop prior knowledge.
4. Making connections to personal experience - Students connect the current topic to their personal experiences. It is an important component of activating or building prior knowledge. The family usually provides the information regarding the student's personal experiences. One example may be students making a connection when using community helper flash cards to learn about workers and the student discusses their visit to the dentist.
Week 9: Choral - Students read the text aloud at the same time. Allows students who read below their peers to participate by reading a second behind their peers. Echo - The teacher reads a line and then the student reads the same line back. Teachers model good reading such as emphasis and fluency. Students hear and copy the good reading. Shared - The teacher and student share repeated readings of a book with control gradually placed on the student. Works best with predictable books during whole group instruction. Partner - Students are paired with supportive partners who read most of the text. Struggling readers may read a few words or some may read aloud with the partner. After reading strategies:
1. Predictions - Students preview pages and are asked to make predictions about what they think will happen in the book or what they will learn. Their predictions are not criticized. Once they begin reading, predictions are revisited and then discussed for accuracy.
2. K-W-L Charts - Helps students access prior knowledge and make predictions about text. The three-column format guides students to identify what they already know, what they want to know, and what they have learned.
3. Graphic Organizers - Visual representations of information that help support memory, understanding, and communication.
4. Acting out the story - A means to support comprehension of the story. Students act out a story out in various ways, using simple signs or labels, texts, and props.
Week 10:
1. Emergent Writing - The beginning stages of learning to write using nonconventional representations. Interpretation of the writing can be challenging. Some students simply make marks on their papers as a way to communicate their thoughts, others may use invented spelling or pictures.
2. The "Write" Stuff - Technologies and supports that are used to reduce the physical and cognitive difficulties associated with writing. Some of the supports may include; Co:Writer, letter stamps, keyboard, and a labeler.
3. Simple Adaptations - Simple devices or motivating factors to help students write. Some of the adaptations may include pencil grips, Magna-Doodles, magic markers, and white boards.
4. Writing/Revising/Editing/Publishing - Revision allows teachers to help students expand on their thoughts, look at their word choice, and practice the use of their writing technologies. It helps students express their message and keep their focus. Publishing allows students to share their writing with others.
5. Writing for Real Reasons - Students need a clear purpose for writing. They apply skills taught in mini-lessons repeatedly and write often for a wide variety of authentic audiences.
Post your assignments here:
Week 1: The question and answers were all informative. The three question and answers that sparked a new thought process for me were, working with the speech-language pathologist in the classroom, including special education students in Four-Blocks instruction, and providing phonics instruction to students with cognitive impairments. Speech-language pathologists (SLP) used to pullout students or groups for therapy. It makes sense for the SLP to become part of the reading and writing block. Allowing SLP’s to provide support in the classroom provides students with meaningful instruction that is much more individualized. Their expertise will also help the teacher to better understand their student’s needs as they collaborate together. Special education students included in Four-Blocks instruction may involve adapting materials and time frames, but it takes away the isolation of students so often noticed in the classroom. Using Four-Blocks as a framework for literacy instruction will help students to make gains in a more meaningful and motivating context. I like the way each block is adapted to meet the student’s needs. The most interesting Q & A for me was the overdue reality that students with cognitive impairments do need phonics instruction and can acquire phonological awareness. I have always wondered why we were short-changing our students. You can only go so far with sight word recognition. It is refreshing to know we should be teaching students with cognitive impairments the skills necessary to read unfamiliar words. Once I read about these three areas, it was clear to me that we are making significant and beneficial changes in the classroom for special education students.Week 2: The authors wrote this book to increase teacher awareness of assistive technology that is available to help students. They wanted to empower teachers with tools, strategies and resources that provide different research-based approaches to help teach all children how to read and write while supporting the different ways children learn. The authors also wanted to support the efforts of the general education teacher and the children they teach in inclusion. There is a strong focus on providing exceptional education students with access to the general reading curriculum.
Week 3:
AT strategies
1. Bigmack
2. Acrylic eye-gaze frame
3. Step-by-Step communication device with speech output
4. Word prediction program
5. Paper with raised lines
6. Triangular pencil grip
7. Red/green button switch
8. Multi-media software program, electronic books
9. Talking word processor
10. Photo album with felt pictures
Week 4:
One benefit of the Four-Blocks Day in a Special Education Classroom is the strengthening of the home-school connection. Keeping parents informed and involved in their child's education helps promote student success. The use of the home-school journal and sending books home for students to read provides opportunities for interaction between the student and the parent. Writing messages and sending remnants to school for the student to share with the class helps to develop relationships and share personal experiences. The teacher sending home descriptions of the upcoming units keeps parents aware of what their child is working on in class. Keeping open communication is an important factor when building a rapport with parents.
One challenge of the Four-Blocks Day in a Special Education Classroom is finding the time to prepare and adapt materials, program devices, plan units and lessons, and collaborate with therapists and other staff. This sample day requires support from therapists, parents, and outside help in developing and adapting materials for the classroom to successfully implement the Four-Blocks Day. This could be discouraging for the teacher. I have met teachers who will not implement a great accommodation or program because it takes to long to prepare and plan.
Week 5:
Mini-lessons provide opportunities for teachers to help students become more independent in reading by teaching them how to choose books of interest, use strategies and technology to help them read and share what they have read with others.
Examples of mini-lessons:
Selecting - Providing students with independent book boxes that contain 5 or 6 books to select from which range in levels. Using these books teach the students preview questions they can ask themselves when selecting a book to read. Using the questions, the teacher then removes the inappropriate books and leaves the appropriate books in the book boxes for future selection. Starting out with limited selection and eventually moving to the bookshelf.
Reading - Read aloud to and with students, modeling good reading behaviors and interactions, also modeling the use of software and websites to promote the pleasures of reading independently.
Sharing - Model how to complete sample reading responses using graphic organizers, modeling the use of key vocabulary to use in the response and posting it for other students to read.
Week 6:
1. http://www.softtouch.com - Set of integrated tools that help to create electronic books for students who have difficulty reading. The electronic books created can be read aloud to the student by the computer. The student can view movie files and capture the student's attention so they can focus on the text. Student recall of the text is improved due to these additional supports. Reaches more types of learners.
2. http://www.ablenetinc.com - Allows students with devices to experience partner reading by synchronizing the reading with the pages..
3. http://www.riverdeep.net/language_arts/edmark_lang_arts/MakeAStory.html - Interactive electronic texts that can be read aloud to the student, use of animated illustrations, and the ability to modify stories.
4. http://www.starfall.com - Interactive texts on multiple levels of interest for students. Read aloud and highlighted text.
5. http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/index.htm - Interactive storybooks.
6. http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/ - Resource providing links to author websites, online comics, e-zines, poetry, and stories in Spanish.
7. http://www.donjohnston.com - Software that can create custom electronic texts which can integrate classroom libraries, read aloud features, dictionary, highlighting tool and a Support Reading Guide that helps students understand story structure.
8. http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org - Digital children's book collection offering subscriptions to individuals and schools.
9. http://www.bookshare.org - Digital adult or older student book collection offering subscriptions to individuals and schools.
10. http://www.bel-tib-lib.org/kids/lists/type.htm - Collections of electronic texts offering animation, text-to-speech, and highlighting allows students to engage with the text independently.
Week 7:
Conferencing is important for students with disabilities because it provides the teacher time to progress monitor students so they can target areas of difficulty, learn who the student is as a reader, and notice the student's strengths. This time also allows for the teacher to teach students the strategies needed to engage in richer dialogue and collect informal assessment data. The benefits include:
1. Choosing the right book for their ability and interest.
2. Learning how to ask and answer questions.
3. Identifying information requested so the student can answer more thoughtfully and completely.
Week 8:
Strategies to use before reading text with students:
1. Taking a picture walk - A pre-reading strategy used to examine the text by looking at pictures to gain an understanding of the story and vocabulary in advance. The teacher shows pictures of the first few pages of the book and introduces vocabulary.
2. Starting a graphic organizer - Students can refer to the visual representation of their background knowledge and add new information as they read or when they are finished. K-W-L is a good example of a graphic organizer that is started with prior knowledge.
3. Building and accessing prior knowledge - In order to comprehend a story it is necessary to have background knowledge pertaining to the text. Many students have not had the experiences and are unable to make connections or have difficulty recalling words that go with the experience. One way to build and access prior knowledge is to select core concepts and have students brainstorm what they know. This helps students recall what they know about the topic. Watching a video or looking at pictures are ways to develop prior knowledge.
4. Making connections to personal experience - Students connect the current topic to their personal experiences. It is an important component of activating or building prior knowledge. The family usually provides the information regarding the student's personal experiences. One example may be students making a connection when using community helper flash cards to learn about workers and the student discusses their visit to the dentist.
Week 9:
Choral - Students read the text aloud at the same time. Allows students who read below their peers to participate by reading a second behind their peers.
Echo - The teacher reads a line and then the student reads the same line back. Teachers model good reading such as emphasis and fluency. Students hear and copy the good reading.
Shared - The teacher and student share repeated readings of a book with control gradually placed on the student. Works best with predictable books during whole group instruction.
Partner - Students are paired with supportive partners who read most of the text. Struggling readers may read a few words or some may read aloud with the partner.
After reading strategies:
1. Predictions - Students preview pages and are asked to make predictions about what they think will happen in the book or what they will learn. Their predictions are not criticized. Once they begin reading, predictions are revisited and then discussed for accuracy.
2. K-W-L Charts - Helps students access prior knowledge and make predictions about text. The three-column format guides students to identify what they already know, what they want to know, and what they have learned.
3. Graphic Organizers - Visual representations of information that help support memory, understanding, and communication.
4. Acting out the story - A means to support comprehension of the story. Students act out a story out in various ways, using simple signs or labels, texts, and props.
Week 10:
1. Emergent Writing - The beginning stages of learning to write using nonconventional representations. Interpretation of the writing can be challenging. Some students simply make marks on their papers as a way to communicate their thoughts, others may use invented spelling or pictures.
2. The "Write" Stuff - Technologies and supports that are used to reduce the physical and cognitive difficulties associated with writing. Some of the supports may include; Co:Writer, letter stamps, keyboard, and a labeler.
3. Simple Adaptations - Simple devices or motivating factors to help students write. Some of the adaptations may include pencil grips, Magna-Doodles, magic markers, and white boards.
4. Writing/Revising/Editing/Publishing - Revision allows teachers to help students expand on their thoughts, look at their word choice, and practice the use of their writing technologies. It helps students express their message and keep their focus. Publishing allows students to share their writing with others.
5. Writing for Real Reasons - Students need a clear purpose for writing. They apply skills taught in mini-lessons repeatedly and write often for a wide variety of authentic audiences.